this week

hello family hey. hi. how´re ya doin? before i forget this next weekis transfers so i wont be emailing you until tuesday next week. wowthis transfer flew by fast it felt like the other day i was writingabout my new companion elder hernandez. but yeah i have one more weekin rivera im pretty dang sure im bouncing after this week its prettyuncommon for a junior companion to stay 4 changes in one area and soim thinking and wishing i get to leave. im ready to meet new members,know more of uruguay and just have more experiences in another placehaha i love rivera but to much of one thing can be bad and that is thecase here haha. so yeah we baptized part of the family were working onthis week i had the pleasure of performing both the baptisms which wasobviously a pretty cool and awesome experience the marriage we arestill working on uruguay is a little complicated and behind with thatkind of stuff so we are still working on getting the parents married.but yeah im really excited for this next change. im ready for a neweverything. new area, new companion, new missionaries to meet, newmembers. just a new plate. elder hernandez is known not to likegringos and i seem to be the exception but the little gringo crackskeep coming and after living with 3 latinos for the past 3 months ihave heard them all haha. so yeah i consider it a huge blessing tolive with 3 latinos for 2 of my first 3 changes. but there issomething about being companions with a gringo yea with a latino yourspanish improves but being with a gringo you just have more all aroundfun haha. but a some converts of elder hernandez are getting sealedthis week so we are going to montevideo tomorrow until wednesday nighti believe so that should help the week go by faster. so yeah thatskind of the report from elder barton i have to kinda grind out thisnext week but nothing a little hard work wont help fix. so yeah i loveyou all and will talk to you next tuesday!!

whats crackin???? hello fam....its me.....michael. so yeah this weekwas super well flew by super fast feels like i was sitting here justthe other day writing you guys but hey thats always good right haha.im glad to hear that everyone is doing good and the bartons had aghetto bash at classic skating this last week. happy birthday mary.and i wish i could have seen mark rollerblading across classic skatingbeing as graceful as the beautiful swan he is. ;) haha and rybartbefore i forget!!! happy birthday!!! the big 2-3 woooowwww. can yabelieve it? haha you old man you. so yeah has it started to warm upthere yet?? the nights here are starting to get pretty chilly. and itgets dark at about 7 o´clock now so winter is a comin my way. it whati get for having almost a year straight of summer haha. but yeah so meand elder hernandez are still working with this one family like i toldyou last week. they both are trying to quit smoking and pretty surethe mom quit she hasnt smoked a cigarette in 3 days so i guess thatsgood haha and than we have planned a wedding for them for wednesdayhaha so they are gonna get married this wednesday and hopefullybaptized before changes cause im thinking im bouncing out of lapedrera this change. we are baptizing there 3 kids this thursday theyare super excited as well as us and the parents are too. so yeahthings are all chillin down here in the guay just tryin to speakspanish and tryin to work hard. i know these emails totally suck but ireally dont know what to say haha march flew by like it was just a dayi cant believe it will be april soon and hey what do you know i almosthave 6 months in the mission. wow the time flies. but yeah thats thereport from elder barton all is good and well just trying to be whatthe lord wants me to be. i love you all have a good week. rybart dontdrink to much mountain dew. xoXoxOxo (little hug, big huge, littlekiss,big kiss)

toasty.

family, parents,brother, sisters of the barton clan im glad to hear everyone is doing good and keepin busy. we have trophies of raquetball tournaments, new church callings, love, school, business in the air. tight super glad to here. but yeah my week was actually super super good. elder hernandez and i are are tearin it up as of right now. we are working super hard and im having a lot of fun. as of right now we are working with a family and preparing them for baptism. we are really excited about this family. they have 5 kids of 12,10,8,7,3 and the kids are planning to get baptized the 31st of this month. the parents are a little bit more complicated. its really common here in uruguay just to find somebody you think is hot, make some babies, live together and think nothing of it and that is the case with these 2 they just did the dirty a couple times had some kids and live with each other. so we are going to help them get married these next 2 weeks then help them quit smoking and than they will be baptized haha sounds like a lot of work i know but really the wedding part takes like 4 days and they really really wanna quit smoking and with the lord they are going too. so i am super stoked for this family. they all love us haha everytime they see us coming all the kids just freek out and the mom yesterday told me how before with the missionaries she didnt like us and never wanted us in her house but now she told me she loves when we visit and she feels something different when were there (i hope its the spirit) so yeah really really excited about this family and we will just have to wait and see what passes with them these upcoming weeks. we are also working with many other people that recieved many answers that this church is true and we are super stoked about them too. but i remembered what mark told me before i left on my mission that he wants to here about the families i baptize and really thats what i want to. just to change the life of an entire family would be incredible. its kinda bad by me but whenever we clap doors or whatever and some old lady opens it up and says come in i kinda get bummed haha i know old people need salvacion too but i just love the family environment and lessons with families its so much better. so yeah it cooled down a little bit here this past week still freaking hot but eh whatever. fall is soon coming its a little cooler in the morning and i no longer need a fan at the foot of my bed every night but any who. things are going super good with me. hope everyone stays busy the busier you all are the faster the time will fly so keep busy everyone i love you all keep it krispy and do what the lord has told you to do. -elder barton

family glad to hear all is well. things are at the brighton house arepretty normal. gloeckners. sports. and im sure nothin but laughs.things with me are great this week was probably the most spiritualweek of my mission. we found a good handful of people that are readyto recieve the gospel. the majority of them confessed to us that theyknew this church was true and straight up wanted to be baptized hahapretty awesome. super spiritual lessons we had goin this week and imexcited to get back at this week with elder hernandez we are getting along super well and the time is flying by. it was suppppeeerrrrfreeaaakkiinnn hot this week i dont know what happened but man o manit was hot. even though im thinking winter is coming around the cornercause i woke up this morning and it felt like i was camping hahapretty dang cold. but all is well. we had a time change we put thetime an hour back now and so its darker later and thats super nice.weare really trying to get members involved in the work and reallypushin the missionary efforts in our tiny branch and the members arestarting to respond and its really rewarding and their really helpingus a lot. even though im kinda gettin a tad sick of my area haha iwill be pretty excited the day i leave only one more month the timewill fly by so im not to worried about that at all. but yeah glad tohear things are goin good with work, school, hawaii,raquetbol. themore you all are busy the faster the time flies haha soo get busy!!!!haha i love you all and yeah i feel like this letter is super boringbut there really is nothing to say. all is well. the church is true.

from uruguay

barton family??? how are things goin?? has it stopped snowing? you glad its finally march? february felt like absolutely nothing on this part of the world flew by like none other but yeah things with me are going super good. me and elder hernandez are working super hard. he really is a super good missionary just needs to be around good influences and if he stays the way he did this week we are going to do some serious miracles in our area. so yeah i am super stoked for this change. im excited to have another latin comp and again im living with 2 other latinos elder miranda still and elder barerra from chile and so non stop spanish for me what a huge blessing the lord has put in front of me to live with 3 latinos for 3 months without a lick of english. elder hernandez wants to learn english and sometimes he asks me how do oyu say this in english and at times i dont know what its called in english kinda strange haha so as of right now i can barely speak spanish and barely speak english im without a language haha but yeah we had a baptism saturday went super good we are kinda of baptizing a family piece by piece haha the mom has to quit smoking but the other sister was baptized in november and than we baptized the other this saturday. super excited to bring families together. yesterday of course was fast sunday and everyone just bore there testimony about families. the girl we baptized she calls herself enes bore her testimony that was a super awesome experience to have her bare her testimony super powerful. so yeah things are goin suuuppppeeerrr good here. working hard studying everyday, teaching the word and testifying of christ everyday. i dont really know what to say haha i love you all. glad to hear things went well with grandpa bartons funeral and some apostoles showed up. right on. tight. you know your a big deal when you go apostoles storming the party. so yeah if their is anything i can help you guys out with anything let me know. i love you all thank you for the support. keep it real. keep it krisp. -your son, your brother, your tiger elder barton

saludos a abuelo barton

family barton, im sad to hear of the death of our grandpa, last night when the zone leaders called me to tell me my change the first thing they asked was have you talked to president heaton right? and i responded no why whats goin on and they said nothing told me my change and 10 minutes later i recieved the call. and president heaton broke the news haha its weird he is like the first person i had really known to die. ha but yeah he gave me the permission to call you guys for a couple minutes so i decided to do so. im glad to hear everyone is ok with the news and if their is anything i can do for anyone please let me know and i will do my best to do so. but yeah willard was a gangsta for sure mad daps mad love but we all know he needed to go and he is in a way more tight place now that for sure. all your emails said it he was a man of the lord all his life his faith never waivered and his love for the gospel never left for a second and for that he will recieve his place in the mansions of the lord and the blessing of this gospel if we all take those same decisions we can live with him in that gangsta mansion. but yeah my new comp is elder hernandez, from chile. like i said on the phone elder hernandez has a really bad rep amongst the missionaries a lot of people dont like him and they all have reason he has been caught numerous times playing video games in the cyber sleeping in, staying out late, listening to kumbya, movies and all that jazz but hey its all good. i know the lord put us together for a reason and really he is a great missionary when he puts his mind to it and is a super good teacher. i just think he needs positive influences so yeah im just gonna really focus this change on being positive and being lovingly bold and were gonna do some great things. it always helps to have a latino comp to with the spanish and so far 2 out of my 3 comps have been latino so i consider that a huge blessing. but yeah these past 4 days i have been the senor companion with hermano fontes he only has 16 years old and is well preparing for a mission i know i wasnt doing these type of things when i was 16 haha so yeah it was super fun i had a lot of fun with him and we worked super hard and i hope i set a good example for him for when he goes on his mission. thats crazy cool about thomas going to chile, thomas if your reading this you may suck at spanish but wait to you get that plaka on ya (i cant remember what its called in english) and man the power that comes with this calling is incredible your no longer thomas loomis your elder loomis and its a moment where your the closest to god and you can literally perform miracles including speaking a different language. so yeah my love to grandpa barton good luck at the funeral tomorrow. saludos to all. i love and pray for you all everyday if there is anything i can do let me know. so yeah i think thats about all good luck in all your doings

dropping the kane

family. so before i forget to tell you yes nextweek are transfers so i will not be emailing until tuesday next week. alright well this week i decided to really drop the kane. everyweek we have noche de futbol and he was out there all playing and what not and that night when we got home i laid the kane down haha in a loving way of course but i was just all look man you can play soccer like that you can proselyt like that haha so yeah every morning and study i was just come on elder lopez time for this and time for that and all and even know he just kinda walked around behind me all week i felt a lot better there is no contention and all is good he just follows me while i lead discussions contacts, noche de hogars and all of that haha basically im the senior companion haha. so yeah definately a week to remember. i know the key to time passing fast is working and im trying my hardest just to work work work and be the best missionary i can. its incredible to me how many disobedient missionaries there are being an actual misionary and being behind the scenes its incredible and kinda sad just how aboslutely stupid missionaries are haha but hey i can go to bed at night knowing im trying my hard to be obedient and give my 2 years to the lord. so yeah glad to hear all is well and mark and sue are hittin up some hawaii...mark dont forget your man necklace ;). yeah nothin really much to say here just workin hard. oh nick sent me 2 books and the great apostasy was one of them haha so if you havent sent it no need but if you have equal and i will just give it to another missionary that book is like gold around these parts haha but yeah the other book i finished yesterday called all these things shall give thee experience by maxwell and oh my gosh holy freakin crap that book is tight. highly recomend someone to read it its easy reading i michael barton read it in 4 days so mark or heather can crank it out in like 2 hours haha but yeah all is good. i will talk to you all on tuesday. or marilyn/kelly scott if your reading this thank you for the emails its always nice to hear from you guys the scott clan is one of a kind hope all is well with you all. kelly thank you for the lovely commentary really brought inspiration to me haha if im not mistaken its britts birthday this week. happy birthday and yeah peace out fools. keep it krispy.

Happy Valentines Day!

hey fam, happy valentines day!! hope everyone has some dates lined up for tonight!! haha i never thought that my valentine for 2011 would be a 23 year old argentine who is kinda chunky (i thought i had more class than that) haha to be completely honest i really have nothing to say. this week we did nothing. literally nothin. elder lopez couldnt work because of his health and we spent a good amount of the day sitting in the house. i studied a ton haha im going for my 4th read through the book of mormon i cant get enough of the scriptures, conference talks and all that i love it haha i love reading past general conference talks its an absolutely blast. there is a talk called safety for the soul by jeff r holland in the november 2009 conference if you have a chance to read it i highly highly reccomend it it is grade a incredible. i wet myself probably a good solid 4 times during the reading. but yeah things are goin kinda slow here elder lopez can hardly work, which equals really nothin to do. man sue i remember you saying i need to learn patience on my mission and just about every aspect of the day is about being patient in the missionary work. patient with your companion, investigators, other missionaries, yourself. in preach my gospel the definition is the capacity to go through hard trials while still having a firm faith in christ. and wow that is so true. there are days its just like what in the world am i doing here? i cant talk to people, everyone is shutting their doors in our faces, and man o man i am starting to get more and more patient i feel haha. so yeah that is just one aspect of things i have really been working on is patience. especially with elder lopez its hard having a companion that cant/doesnt want to work. i try and make the best i can out of a negative situation such as study the gospel, talk to him in spanish while he is just laying there, study spanish and things like that but many its really stretching my bounds haha. so yeah thats the report from elder barton this week. sittin in uruguay being patient. have a good week everyone. keep it gangster.

Top Ten

family whats goin on?? glad to hear from the majority of you that all is going well snowshoeing with alex babystting gloeckners super bowl beards mission calls sounds like the 801 isnt missing me to much haha. first off austin, spanish speaking to calgary canada? i thought canada was just a bunch of frenchys and white trash hockey players. i was wrong haha. is it the same exact mission as rybart? if it is thats crazy cool maybe austin will get a chance to meet your converts and such!! thats super exciting to hear about austin and he is taking that decision to serve. tell thomas to get his butt in line haha i sware i hear every week he is turning them in next week haha ryan keep up the beard sounds like a fantastic idea still wish i could grow a lttle something beardlike but so far no go haha. this week was good we had a ward activity for our branch we got a new ward missionary leader and he is a stud totally excited about the work and is helping a ton so yeah we had an activity called "un postre un amigo" and it turned out pretty good we had a good turn out and we are really trying to get the members more involved. yesterday fast sunday was super good as well. you know how a fast sunday just tends to stick to a certain topic. yeah well luckily the topc was missionary work and all 20 members that were there gave their testimonies about missionary work so that was super good too i have really been praying to get members more involved and i think that was my answer cause now everyone just wants to lunch with us or have noche de hogars with us so its super good whats passing right now. but other than that nothing much has passed so to make this email a little more interesting im going to give you the top 10 reasons why i think i was called to uruguay to serve the lord and how i love the lifestyle here.

1. everyone just sits around all day...beautiful

2. no one wears underwear....holla at ya home boy

3. you never wear actual clothes just a swimsuit.....dont diss homeness

4. if you are wearing a shirt which is hardly ever its a soccer jersey....style

5. somehow in some miraculous way the unibrow became ok......i havent shaved mine for the past 4 months

6. obvious everyone loves soccer

7. if you over the age of 40 i think its an unwritten rule to have a mustache

8. they jam to whitney houston.....every night i get to hear the glorious song and iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii willlllll always love you!!!!!

9. everyone wears toms shoes its not the mark toms but its same style and you can buy a pair for 6 dollars at your local almacen haha

10. if your not sitting outside sippin on some matte your inside sleeping taking a siesta

well i hope this list brought some laughs i dont really have much to say me and elder lopez are getting along pretty well he is getting a little more ampted to work a touch harder im still working on it. but yeah everyone stay classy, eat a cinnamon roll for me. i love you alll sooooo much thanks for all the support and prayers talk to you all next week. oh and i will have you all know my hair is stil nice and plentiful! (: forever yours, elder michael barton

yo soy un latino

fam. what up. so basically 3 hours after i emailed you last week we recieved a phone call and elder hilton had to leave haha and por this i recieved a new companion. elder lopez from argentina, buenos aires. so therefore i now live with elder miranda from panama (my buddy from the mtc) elder torres (my uncle in the mission) and now elder lopez i never speak english and am living the life of a latino haha. elder lopez is finishing his mission after this change as well, but he has some backproblems and for this he was sent up here he was in montevideo and they thought it would help him to be in a more relaxed enviorement such as la pedrera aka el campo. so yeah me and elder lopez get a long pretty good not gonna lie he is not the hardest worker out there and i kind of have to drag him around the day. it sucks cause elder hilton was super excited to work here and just wanted to shred it up but he left and now elder lopez knows he is going home and doesnt really have the mentality of elder hilton he doesnt really desire to meet the people here know the area cause he knows he is leaving. but bonus he is a latino which means i speak spanish all day long which helps me aton haha however elder lopez is going to byu after the mission and doing a intensive english class or something and wants to learn english really bad so i am helping him with his english at the same time he is helping me with my spanish so it works right hand in hand. baptisms went very good we had a good turnout from the ward and it was pretty incredible to see the look on the dads face. hno santana is the guy i told you about on the phone on christmas that cant read and collects bottles for a living. we reactivated him my first week here and it was his kids we baptized. connecting families. what an amazing work. i have never fully recognized the blessings on the family this gospel has until i saw the light in all of their eyes yesterday at church holy cow completely different people. but yeah so thats whats goin down here. i look forward to recieving the letter and the padded envelope from rybart. hope all is keeping busy at home and you all have no time to think about me cause the less you think of me the faster time goes haha i really feel like im getting lost in the work january flew by for me and im thinking each change and month will just keep passing faster and faster but yeah hope all is good at home. keep it krisp i love you all so much

May the Force be With you.....

hey family was going on so yeah just first week of changes and all first week of changes is always slow just getting elder hilton caught up with whats goin on and getting to know members better and all that jazz. elder hilton is a good guy. reminds me of the 14 year old version of rybart. he loooovvveessss star wars. awesome. he is super tall and super skinny and pretty stinkin smart. i thought i knew a lot about star wars he has read every single star wars book. every movie memorized by memory. i basically get to watch star wars everyday during proselyting he just says the whole movie right there its pretty entertaining. we dont get a long as good as elder tippets and i did but its all good its totally expected he is not much of a sports guy and im not much of a books guy but we get along well enough. and hey were not out here to talk sports and books we are here to testify of christ and thats really all that matters so por that reason we get along just fine! do you remember elder miranda my first roomate from the mtc? he is now in la pedrera and we live in the same house we have become super good friends and its super fun to get to live with him again in the same house. and since elder hilton is going home next change im thinkin im stayin and elder miranda too so we will probably live together for a while. but yeah its all good here spanish is getting better, workin hard everyday i really realized this week that a mission is not long at all and you really just gotta work everyday likes its your last it helps time fly and its why i came on a mission not to hangout with members all day or for the peer pressure i simply went cause i wanted to share the joy and happiness this gospel has brought into my life and i want others to see and feel that happiness too. so i have my first 3 baptisms this saturdayas well so we are just preparing them for that and im excited for that to happen. i think im baptizing all 3 actually we are trying to get a member to do it just cause thats the best way to do things and all but hey i am more than willing to do it as well i guess we will just see on saturday. but yeah thats basically all from me me and elder hilton get a long good, have 3 baptisms this saturday and me and elder miranda are reunited again. i think i might have an accent with my english though cause elder miranda knows a little bit of english and wants to be fluent and so he talks to me every now and again in it and when we saw each other for the first time he started speaking english i said something back in english he was all you talk a lot different than in the mtc so uh oh i guess you guys will hear that when i call for mothers day but hey who knows. mark i have lost weight actually. but ahhh im so mad so me and elder tippets took some pictures and the flags last p day and i totally look fat but i have actually lost like 6 pounds so ha and know my hair is still well in tact and if i see the slightest sign of any loss im going to buy some shampoo to help treat it haha so yeah hope everything is good from you all. i didnt hear from sue this week? is everything ok? hope i didnt say anything to hurt or offend you haha but yeah talk to you all later. may the force be with you. your brother, son, friend. elder barton

changes.....

Hey fam. sorry yeah i forgot to tell you that i wouldnt be emailing you until today haha yes sue you were right changes were this week so we had p day today. but yeah this week was super good we taught a lot of lessons haha and got one more person with a baptisimal date! so as of right now we have 3 getting baptized on the 29th and 1 other the first week of february. super cool super tight. so yeah elder tippets is bouncing on me he is going to be a zone leader in tocuarembo that just shows how big of a stud he is. not gonna lie im gonna miss elder tippets we became super good friends and i am so grateful for the example he has set for me as im starting off my mission. i truly believe that god called us to be together for a reason i learned so much from him but yeah im recieving an elder named elder hilton, obviously i dont know him but i have heard nothing but good things about him he is a former zone leader and this is his last change so i get to kill him haha which in turn means after this next change i will probably hanging around rivera til about april which im cool with i really like my area, the branch is super fun. its funny you would think since the members know im learning spanish they would make fun of me the least but they make fun of me the most haha kinda funny how that works but you really cant let that stuff go to your head way to many other worries haha. so yeah i will meet elder hilton tomorrow morning and we will get to work. i get to be sr comp for a little bit haha just while he gets to know the area and our investigators and what not so we will see how that goes this coming week or 2. so yeah thats basically all thats going on here just working hard recieving a new companion tmrw. im starting to enjoy myself more and more now that im better in the flow of things and in somewhat of a comfort zone haha before the mission when everyone was giving me advice i was like yeah whatever but everrything that anyone has told me is true. 3 specific examples, 1 lance osbourne told me to just always keep telling myself things will only get better things will only get better. and that is totally true not a day goes by that i dont tell myself in my head at least 5 times things will get better, time isnt gonna freeze haha. 2 rybart told me days feel like months and months feel like days. that couldnt be more true now that im finished with my first transfer i look back and it feels like last week i was at the montevideo temple meeting elder tippets. and here we are at the end of the change haha. and 3 definately not last kelly scott, he told me that for the first couple months im gonna get homesick for the first couple months and im gonna wanna go home but you just gotta plunge through it and its great. and im thinking im at that point im at about 3 and a half months in now and things really are starting to get a ton better im use to be the work ethic and the looonnnggg days but i love em. i remember ryan saying "i didnt know i wanted to be a missionary till about i was a year in" and i totally see that now. there are days when i just go what the heck am i doing im in some hut of a house in northern uruguay tryin to talk to people. but when you see that smile on the faces of people that know you and are glad to see you its awesome. and i really see my spanish improving i recognize when people are speaking portunyol and im like hey im not suppose to understand you haha. my area really is uneducated and speaks really poor spanish so im like hey thats why it was so hard. so yeah the lord has blessed me a ton this week i knew if i kept on praying with REAL intent that he would bless me with energy, comfort, and at times the gift of tongues. but yeah super good week here from the guay just gonna continue to work hard and hopfully i will be calling you all on the phone for mothers day before i know it haha. but hows everything back home? austin finally wrote me KC is engaged?? what the heck man that is crazy!! rybart hows the one date a month going on? heys hows jersey shore and community coming along?? carly hows my social butterfly? mary you ballin little girls up? meg hows the iron rod (im not talking about the word of god im talking about the literal iron rod in your mouth haha) heather, long lost sister, hows your class coming along? but yeah excited to hear from you all next week!! mad love, mad daps, keep it gangster up in the 801. forever your brother and son, with all my love, with all my might, we have to choose the right. haha i just made that up pretty creative but word tight me and elder tippets are going to adventure into brazil for his last day in river. peace

this week....

fam. sup good to hear you all had a good christmas break and enjoyed the time. BYU basketball.......vamos arriba. thats way awesome jimmer is killin it. thank you all for the support and love these last couple weeks have really been tough the mission is not at all what i though it would be. people always told me it would be one of the hardest things i would ever do. and everything about that sentence is completely true. the mission is tough. but we all need trials and well all need opposition to learn and grow thats why were here. to learn and grow so that we can return to our heavenly father being as close to christ as possible. things this week went pretty well though not gonna lie. i went on divisions and worked basically this whole week in the actual city of Centro with Elder McRae he is a super good guy we have a lot in common. i like divisions they give me a chance to meet more elders and get to know the mission more and just the way they work and get tips from them. and if their latin helps me a ton with my spanish being forced to speak spanish all day long. so yeah as of right now we have 3 people with a baptisimal date! we activated a guy my first week here and he has gone ever since haha but yeah he has 2 kids pablo,9 and mariah,10 and they want to get baptized so we have been teaching them. a lot of people make fun of baptizing kids which to me is really dumb. christ said come unto me like a child so its perfect in my eyes. and what am i gonna do wait till their 18 and pregnant like a lot of the people here haha so its good. than we have this old gal named suele she is brazillian about 65 years old haha. she said she was praying for a right answer and 2 days later the missionaries knocked on her door. so we have teaching her and all 3 have a date for the 29th! so im super excited for that. me and elder tippets had a really good week we really worked hard and i feel really good about this week. i have really been studying the atribute of patience. i always thought patience was just being able to wait for something. but preach my gospel says patience is the ability to have the capacity to bear through trials and tough out the trials and recieve the beautiful blessings after. so as of right now i need to gut out the tough times have the capacity to deal with the being laughed at, doors slammed in your face, walking up huge hills day in and day out, barely being to talk to anyone. and i know i will recieve blessings in the end. the mission really is simple, do what your suppose to do and work hard. each day i grow to love this work more and more its tough its hard but i know in the end it will be fantastic. i want to be one of those people that just loved my mission so much i dont wanna leave. everytime i see that 2011 calender hanging in our house i go holy crap im gonna be here every one of those days but if i get lost in the work it will fly right on by. well see ya later have fun freezing to death while im roasting to death haha we will soon switch roles dont you worry. austin you said you would right me you have yet too ouch. i love you all thank you all soooooooooooooooo much for the love and support and prayers its awesome i feel em everyday when i walk out the door. if those elders are at the house longer than an hour on sunday telll them to leave and dont give them any refrences (if they even ask) i love you all. elder barton

Feliz Ano Nuevo

Fam.
what up. it was good to talk to you all last saturday but sue you are right it does feel like it has been forever i dont know why but it has haha. so yeah im gonna be straight honest with ya this week was pretty tough. we dont really have any investigators progressing right now so this past week we decided to to really focus on finding new people to teach and see if we can find some more sheep and herd em in. so this week work wise was tough a lot of walking a lot of taking doors and a lot a lot a lot of rejection haha. seems like 90 percent of the time we got doors slammed in our faces. evangelicos are pretty big down here and i guess they tell their congregations that were from the devil and the devil sent us here to decieve them. so naturally their are not very open to us. but we still found 3 or 4 people that have some potential i guess we will find out. guayians arent to big on commitment, kinda like JD on scrubs. they just dont like to be held accountable for anything. so they dont make promises haha. so yeah work wise it was tough. but i learned how to make arroz con leche like a pro and it is quite delicous when i get home i will have to dish some up and see what you all think. its pretty delicous. but im glad to hear the break went well and especially megans surgery thats totally awesome. about 90 percent of the population of the mandubi could use some serious mouth surgery haha. but yeah we spent the ano nuevo with the same member family that we spent christmas with. had a nice asado and it was really good i took some pictures so you guys can check it out sometime. it was super good to hear from tom and austy even though austin promised to write me and i didnt get an email haha. im glad they both decided to go on missions it really is fun. its freakin tough but it will be worth it when i get that first baptism. yea i dont really know what else. its gettin hotter and hotter by the day here. but its all good in my part of the world. dont worry about me im doing good just tryin to be as christlike as possible. whenever it gets hard i always think about elder hollands talk about the atonement and missionary work. he says why is missionary work so hard? because eternal salvation never was easy. and dont you think to be a disciple of christ you have to go through a little of what he had to go through? me and elder tippets always say that to each other whenever one of us gets down or complains haha we always just turn to each other and be like our own garden of eden. hahaha awesome well i love you all. the church is true. dont worry about me. keep it gangster